I do wonder if something was driving it. Seems like it was a very deliberate decision

https://www.football365.com/news/liverp ... evel-claim

I think the article to look at is this ….

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... nal-ruling

Serial killers aren’t all mentally ill. Many just enjoy killing people. That makes them unusual but not mentally ill. Money laundering (if that’s what you mean by organised crime) routinely does nothing remotely comparable to what serial killers do and it’s silly to claim anything else. Remember the negative consequences of money laundering is spread so widely, possibly even across entire populations, to an almost marginal extent it often makes a negligible difference to the individuals within those populations or groups.

Serial killers end the lives of their victims, added to which are the often extremely negative consequences for their relatives. I wouldn’t want to be the victim of money laundering. But I would much, much prefer being a victim of money laundering than the victim of a serial killer, as being a direct victim of the latter would end my life.

No i wouldn't want to be the victim of money laundering either. I well remember the brutal scenes in the Godfather when Sonny is ambushed by money launderers, or the South American gang at the end of Scarface invading Tony's home and forcibly laundering all his money.

But these are just media fantasies concocted for our entertainment. Thankfully in reality, as Bernard has so helpfully pointed out, organised criminal gangs are relatively harmless. It's not like they kill people is it?

Some criminal gangs may of course kill. But as you did in your first paragraph, let’s get this back to money laundering where the debate appeared to start. Surely it’s reasonable to say that just about anyone (unless they’re genuinely wanting their life to end and would prefer someone else to do it than commit suicide) would rather lose cash from money laundering than be murdered - by a serial killer or a single killer. Serial killers can be considered worse than single victim murderers simply because they kill more people.

Having moaned about people having a go at Arsenal for whatever we do I'm now going to moan about the other side of the media talking us up as title contenders! I want us to just go under the radar for as long as possible.

For me, our start has been better than could be expected even if you might think on paper we should win the 6 games we have won - football just doesn't happen like that. We're still in a very competitive race for the top 4 where 2 big teams who should be in it will miss out. Currently (only 7 games in) I feel like it is Chelsea nd Man U who miss out, neither look as good as the other 4. Their new managers could swing them one way or the other but I see more gaps in quality in both their squads than the other 4.

Top 4 for us shows progress but I also think we must be targeting a trophy - ideally the Europa League. We need to be consistent in the league and also a team that can beat anyone in a cup game. The final target for the season is to be better in the 4 games v City and Liverpool. Last year was 3 very one sided games against them and one game we played very well but still ended up being beaten. In top 6 games your target should always be to win the home games and take a draw away from home - that is title winning form so it is unrealistic for us right now but I want to beat both of them at least once this season to really instill the belief that we're right up there now.

The best analysis I’ve seen on xhakas transformation

https://twitter.com/jj_bull/status/1572 ... fS9mBfNGkA

It’s quite strange. The new formation seems to protect the side from his weaknesses and exploit his strengths. He has a manager that understands him for the first time. He was literally allergic to going in the penalty area under wenger and always used to stop his run forward.

Doesn’t mean he’s amazing now and wasn’t before and neither does it mean he’s always been incredible. Doesn’t always have to be one thing or another.

What certainly is the case is for the first time he’s adding real value and consistency in performance

My guess is one of the Dems will figure out that going for a conviction will bring long term political repurcussions and the best way to bring Trump down is take away his business. All major American companies violate the law. That's a given. The 2008 recession Wall Street committed massive fraud and no one went to jail. They donate too much money. Obama got about 100 million for his campaign. This may sound crazy but you can bribe any politician as long as you report it. The Republican Supreme Court saw to that years ago in a court case saying 'money is speech' (with regards to donating, investing, etc.) and since 'right to speech' is an inviolate right, then so is your money. Trump's businesses have been teetering for decades. He's based in New York, and the current attorney general there is putting that together.

As for Robert Mercer, I've read about him for years. He's often described as a 'Libertarian', in actuality he's a white nationalist. He funded Breitbart in its original incarnation. They changed a few things once they went more mainstream under Trump. They used to have a column called 'Black Crime' and all it did was list crimes committed by blacks against whites. Steve Bannon was in charge at that time. Ben Shapiro came out of the Breitbart camp as well.

He also funds people like Jared Taylor. He's been pretty much de-platformed but his views could fit into Nazi ideology.

These groups play little games. They will be complimentary to Asians (northern Asians - Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, not SE Asians), Indians and Jews but in reality if they had their own nation, they would all either be excluded or have to accept permanent 2nd class existence. They will play 'word games' when asked a question.

"Do you believe blacks are inferior"

"Well, I think Asians , Israelis/Jews and sub continent Indians are more intelligent than Whites and I think African Americans are more intelligent than native Africans".

You get the inference.

As for the UK, what I know could fit in a thimble and this is more question than statement. Isn't New Labour from the 90s akin to the Democratic party shift under Bill Clinton? Abandoning support for trade unions, etc, to some extent and moving closer to the center? Original intent but now have very progressive wings that will make great pains to refer to you by your proper pronoun. Not sure if that is so.

Thanks for that. Interesting, informative and understandable. Pictures definitely work better for me in explanations.

Man City are allowed 13.2 fouls before a yellow card.
Man City’s opponents are allowed 5.5 fouls before a yellow card

Arsenal are allowed 6.1 fouls before a yellow card
Arsenal’s opponents are allowed 8.1 fouls before a yellow card.

Small sample size this season so far but these are the same stats every season.

Seen a line on twitter about Nwaneri and, a former Arsenal coach has said in his 30 years as an Arsenal youth coach Nwaneri makes his all time top 10 talented players at U16 level. He also said another current youth player would make that list.... Myles Lewis-Skelly, I saw a few clips of him as well recently and he is just gliding past players in central midfield.

Nwaneri by all accounts is wanted by every top club in England, no doubt the reason Arsenal have fast tracked him.

The chances of any of them making it to be a regular Arsenal first team player are still slim, but there does seem to be a genuine buzz around some of these lads.

I’m a cynic but I think there is more to the Nwaneri thing than meets the eye.

Playing him seems weird. They could have brought on any player in that minute rather than a 15 year old

Pure hunch but I think it’s evidence in the event a football tribunal takes place he was held in esteem ie they know he’s going to sign terms with another club before march. See Harvey Elliott

Have you considered counselling Rich?

That is the purpose of the forum.

If Nwaneri signs for another club on or around his 16th birthday, which is 21st March 2023, will it go to a tribunal to set some compensation for Arsenal? You mention Elliott who Liverpool took from Fulham. Did his case go to a tribunal and Fulham receive compensation?

Was it Rich who said every big club wants to sign Nwaneri? If so, Liverpool are the one I’ve seen reported by journalists. Indeed, I saw somewhere (not sure if it was here or elsewhere) that his dad is a big Liverpool fan making it realistic to assume he might be as well.

I’d imagine any compensation Arsenal receive from Liverpool (or wherever else he goes) will be peanuts. Maybe a hundred grand or two? If so, less than the weekly salary of top players. Myself, rather than doing it to get a few more quid from Liverpool via a tribunal, I think it’s far more likely Arteta brought Nwaneri on as a late sub against Brentford to try and convince him Arsenal is the best club to be at to make his way in the game.

Off to vegas in a few months so of course it’s the perfect time for our currency to tank itself

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/20 ... -ftse-100/

Here’s a calculation for you. Calculate 20% of all the money in your bank account. Now add up all the money you think you’ve spent since 2016 and take 80% off it. Add both numbers together and voila that’s your personal cost of brexit

Wonder how long before the pound falls below the 1 dollar mark

He’s just abolished the top rate of tax.

I’m thousands better off from April.

This is mental. This is just not normal.

They are literally trying to buy votes now. How does this help the poorest in society? Why are we obsessed in this country with the notion of paying tax as being a bad thing? They are burning everything as quickly as they can, regulations, workers rights. They're essentially trying to turn this country into a tax haven, which of course is what they wanted all along with the concept of Brexit.

Don't know if you've been watching The Capture on iPlayer? The second season is very pertinent. Features a company who are using data to infiltrate politics. Clearly based on Cambridge Analytica and their Brexit work. Really good series btw.

Don’t get me wrong I love a nice tax break, I’ll get the kitchen done next year now

It’s basically a bribe. They are doing this for votes and it’s amazing how they are doing stuff they know damages the country for the retention of power.

I’ll check out that series

Honestly Rich, who cares? Media will write stories to generate clicks and generate income. That's it. The fact that Arsenal are more of a topic of news headlines is because there are more people that want to click that mouse button to see us either winning or losing and any other topic that generates a "those tossers from Arsenal" response. It's all mathematics and bots.

The Harvey Elliot tribunal fee was £4.3m that Liverpool had to pay Fulham. It wasn’t all up front, a chunk of it is based on appearances.

I don’t care that much, it doesn’t keep me up at night….just something to talk about during the slow international break.
I completely get that Arsenal generate responses and clicks- but so would Liverpool and to a lesser degree Spurs, Liverpool have more fans than us in the UK and they can be quite a precious bunch as can we. So when they over celebrate, or play 16 year old Harvey Elliot we hear not a peep?
I think we got more criticism for actually beating Fulham than Liverpool did drawing with them.

Parties are a figurative element in populist politics. There is a dying allegiance to one side or the other but there also is a huge number of people that have become overfed on confirmation bias and are being so battered by facebook and youtube that they've lost the ability to think objectively or with any sense of fact based reasoning.

There will always be people that support one another but politicians are a bunch of self serving arseholes who will never have the greater good as front of mind.

It's cyclical though. Liverpool have had blips like that in the past and then come roaring back. So a jouro isnt going to go all in on a blip and then be embarrassed a week later. Arsenal on the other hand were expected to beat them so the journo can't lose if they're critical.

Look there may be a "I hate Arsenal" bias but it is also because we're still one of the biggest clubs in the world and 80% want to see the big clubs lose.

This is what Cambridge Analytica did in the US elections, Brexit and other elections around the world (Kenya was one they trialed, I think off the top of my head). They used algorithms to see how people's political allegiances tended to sway towards one side. They then used these algorithms to feed stories, videos, adverts to those people. Much of it was misinformation - Turkey joining the EU for example - but they didn't care as long as it played on the fears, prejudices and biases of huge numbers of people to manipulate their feeds, hence reinforcing a particular political persuasion. Absolutely terrifying yet amazing in equal measures. I remember many years ago hearing someone explain to me how data is king and will be one of the most valuable commodities in the future. I didn't understand how or why. Now I do.

I don't know about that. If a company hires a plumber who blames foreigners for the state of the drains, and promises to fix them while actually doing nothing and handing over the money to his rich friends ... the company is going to look at the idiot that hired the plumber as hard as the plumber himself. Particularly if he keeps hiring that plumber.

Politicians only get away with it because people don't even take the time to do a little bit of genuine research, or overlook obvious character flaws because they think their guys have 'owned the libs' (a bizarre goal to have in life). These are educated adults, who are unable to understand what would be blinding obvious to a 9 year old child.

No, the problem isn't with the politicians.

I read somewhere that in Sweden teaching school-kids to detect echo-chambers and epistemic bubbles is something that is taken very seriously. Critical thinking skills need to be very high on the agenda.

The problem we when the adult and school-teachers are themselves caught in those! Nightmarish.

It’s two fold really.

They know voters are passive and pander to their obvious character flaws. The obsession with immigration for example.

The problem is also the politicians though they can’t be excused. As a patriotic British citizen would you honestly hand on heart do things you knew vandalised the country financially & diplomatically to progress your career. I wouldn’t. What about your kids futures

Absolutely right. The way tech companies like Facebook feed the biases of people with these algorithms just to feed their ad machine is ridiculous. "The social dilemma" was a good watch. I have a friend who absolutely hates smart phones and isn't a tech guru and he was telling me how we saw the pattern of escalating drivel on Youtube and deliberately looked up the opposite just to get some kind of balanced opinion.

I agree that it's not as singular responsibility as I'd suggested. There is certainly a huge level of deliberate ignorance that allows the pollies to behave as they have. Whether it be disinterest, disinformation or just ignorance. The thing that sh/tz me is that the Politicians deliberately prey on these things to fund their own pensions when they could be earning just like everyone else and that to me it parasitic.

Sorry Bernard, but that is completely incorrect.

Corruption undermines development and is responsible for mass misery. The life expectancy of least developed countries is typically more than 10 years less than middle income countries. Look at a place like Zimbabwe. Fairly well educated, wonderful climate and resources, etc. But appallingly corrupt government.

You are looking millions of excess deaths (with unfortunate consequence for relatives, indeed!), caused not just by disease but by higher murder rates (corrupt law enforcement), political instability, and natural disasters (corrupt politician don't look after storm drains or prevent people living on floodplains, or both with fire safety) .. compared to a few hundred, admittedly luridly awful, deaths caused by serial killers.

And sorry, serial killers are nuts, albeit not necessary in a barking at the moon manner.

Funnily enough I think it's because the pollies know that they can be excused. If I was to lie outrageously in my job I'd be sacked. If I did it in society I could be prosecuted / persecuted. In politics it seems to have become a badge of honour to see who can lie the most while generating poll-based support and there seem to be minimal repercussions.

That my point exactly. People who are responsible, nice, and smart in their own jobs and families, tend to be the opposite in the economic and political views. It is because there are no consequence for the latter.

If people don't understand that it is their civic duty to at least try to understand both side of a debate, then we are screwed. We'll get the leader we deserve.

We'll also get the leader that we've been told to believe is the best one. This is where the media / social media is corrupting / screening / validating the truth for most people and also where Corporations like Facebook, Amazon and Google are now taking it to the next level in the same way that Murdoch did. Here in Aus I always felt like the ABC and SBS were grounded non-biased media organisations but then in the last couple of years there has been an escalating pattern of hyperbolic headlines that have skewed statistics into headlines. E.g. "Massive drop in housing applications by 15%" when they neglected to mentioned that it was off all time highs that were 50% above the norm and also cyclical.

Facebook ... yes I tried that ... until I realised that Chocolate Gooner was nowhere near as much of an outlier as I had imagined. What a mess!

Lol yep no Facebook for me either. Full of nutters so I retreat to the safe haven of the Gleiber forum.

Not to mention the soothing green baize background and Steve's Jolly face.

100% they know there’s no consequences

Mogg telling everyone they would get cheaper trainers after brexit. Boris saying no checks on the Irish Sea and now the issue with the NI protocol.

I mean in the private sector you would unceremoniously fired in a heartbeat.

Only yesterday mogg suggested in parliament people who are againest fracking are likely connected to Putin. He actually said this with a straight face. It’s dire, just dire